The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (the “Court”) issued a major ruling against the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 29, 2023, holding that the SEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a cease-and-desist order on August 28, 2023, charging Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact Theory”) with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in violation...more
9/8/2023
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Howey ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Tokens
In the latest decision evaluating the application of federal securities laws to the digital asset context, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) ruled in favor...more
8/23/2023
/ Cryptoassets ,
Digital Assets ,
Howey ,
Investment ,
Investment Contract ,
Liquidity ,
New York ,
Profits ,
Registration Requirement ,
Ripple ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
Token Sales
On July 13, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) issued a major ruling in in a closely-followed lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)...more
The Supreme Court yet again unanimously overturned bribery convictions based on prosecutorial overreach via the honest services wire fraud statute. The steady stream of reversals fundamentally challenges the DOJ’s approach in...more
The First Circuit applied a narrow definition of “bribery” for honest services fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1346. Payments made to the purportedly harmed party in the alleged bribery scheme—here, the universities—cannot...more
Last week, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a Compensation Incentives and Clawbacks Pilot Program (the “Pilot Program” or “Program”) that will apply to all corporate criminal resolutions with the Criminal Division...more
This week the Department of Justice rolled out its new United States Attorney’s Offices’ Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy.
The Policy, which is effective immediately, details when a company will be considered to have made...more
This week the DOJ published revisions to its Corporate Enforcement Policy designed to even further encourage companies to make voluntary self-disclosures of wrongdoing within their ranks, cooperate with investigations, and...more
1/20/2023
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Fraud ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ,
Investigations ,
Remedial Actions ,
Securities Fraud ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held, on December 27, 2022, in United States v. Blaszczak (“Blaszczak II”) that an agency’s confidential, pre-decisional information did not count as...more
1/18/2023
/ Appeals ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Confidential Information ,
Fraud ,
Hedge Funds ,
Insider Trading ,
Kelly v United States ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Wire Fraud
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in United States v. Banks1 that under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, “loss” means only actual loss and not intended loss.
Although the term “loss” is not explicitly...more
Late last week, the Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco, announced several new guidelines for prosecutors to use when determining how to assess and treat corporate offenders....more
9/21/2022
/ Compliance ,
Compliance Monitoring ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Individual Accountability ,
New Guidance ,
Prior Wrongful Acts ,
Recidivism ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Transparency
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on July 21, 2022, filed a complaint (the “SEC Complaint”) alleging insider trading violations against an insider, his brother, and a friend, claiming that the trio engaged in...more
8/15/2022
/ Coinbase ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insider Trading ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Public Information ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas recently recognized new constitutional and extraterritorial limits on the FCPA. In an order entered November 10, 2021, the court held that it lacked...more
12/3/2021
/ Bribery ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Process ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Agents ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Indictments ,
Jurisdiction ,
Kickbacks ,
Money Laundering ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Vagueness ,
White Collar Crimes
Key Takeaways - On October 3, 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the “Pandora Papers,” which expose the use by political leaders, billionaires, and others of offshore entities in an...more
Key Takeaways -
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently issued a decision providing new guidance on how to draft amicus briefs that the court will accept for filing.
The court stressed the...more
Weeks ago, on September 14 2020, the Trump Administration made news by announcing a ban on the importation of certain products made in China’s Xinjiang region, where widespread human rights abuses—including slave labor work...more
10/6/2020
/ China ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
Forced Labor ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Human Rights ,
Imports ,
Park Doctrine ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration ,
US Trade Policies
Key Takeaways
- Slave, forced, and child labor is a modern-day reality impacting some 40 million people throughout the world, by some estimates. Such practices are—and have always been—repugnant, and certainly have no place...more
8/14/2020
/ Aiding and Abetting ,
Alien Tort Statute ,
Anti-Slavery Commissioner ,
Anti-Trafficking Statutes ,
Child Labor ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Criminal Code ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Forced Labor ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Human Rights ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Modern Slavery Act ,
Multinationals ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Sex Trafficking ,
Slavery ,
Supply Chain ,
Tariff Act of 1930 ,
Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act ,
Transparency in Supply Chains Act ,
UK